Smriti Irani, Shekhar Kapur in PM's museum team

The Union Government has reconstituted the society and executive council of the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library (PMML) with several new faces, according to a notification issued by the Union Culture Ministry.

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While former Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Nripendra Mishra, got another five-year term as the organisation’s chairperson, the new entrants include former Union Minister Smriti Irani, former NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Kumar, retired army officer Syed Ata Hasnain, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Delhi-based religious organisation Sanskar Bharati’s Vasudev Kamath. The council earlier had 29 members. Now it has been expanded to 34 members.

Other new members are Sanjeev Sanyal, a member of the economic advisory council to the Prime Minister; educationist Chamu Krishna Shastry, who was a chief contributor in the formulation of the controversial National Education Policy; archaeologist KK Mohammad, a former regional director of the Archaeological Survey of India, who was part of the Babri Masjid excavation team in 1976, as well as archeologist BR Mani, who currently heads the National Museum.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the president of NMML society and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is the vice-president.

Raghvendra Tanwar, chairperson of the Indian Council of Historical Research, and Sachidanand Joshi, chairperson of the IGNCA and lyricist Prasoon Joshi are also part of the society. Known earlier as the Nehru Memorial Museum & Library Society, the museum was renamed as the Prime Ministers’ Museum and Library Society in June 2023.